England's archery team have denied an accusation that one of their officials insulted the Indian head coach after the women's recurve final at the Commonwealth Games here yesterday. England lost by one point after an extremely fractious contest in which the excitable home crowd made a lot of noise.

India's head coach, Limba Ram, said that after the match was over he had approached an English team official to shake hands, but was told to "fuck off". Ram was unable to identify the man who had insulted him. Ram was gracious enough to shrug the slight off.

"Following an internal team investigation, there is no indication that an English official was involved in yesterday's alleged rudeness to an Indian official at the archery venue," read a statement from the England team. "As an England team we have all worked hard with our Indian hosts to make these Games successful and to respect each others' cultures. We would ask, of course, that athletes are respected when they are competing in the spirit of fair play in sport."

The English team were upset by the noise made by the partisan crowd. England had held the lead going into the last round, but said they were disturbed by the rowdy spectators. "I was nervous," said Amy Oliver. "The crowd was not good. They were pretty loud and it was not good sportsmanship for archery."

"Obviously it was a difficult way to finish," said Alison Williamson, who shot last. "This is not a typical archery crowd but we're not making any excuses because we shoot as a team. I liken it to golf, though. You don't get people clapping and shouting when someone is teeing off."

Archery's governing body has since issued a statement calling for the spectators at the Games to show a sense of "fair play".